House incumbents win in Kentucky, Arkansas

House incumbents in Kentucky and Arkansas skated to easy primary wins on Tuesday.

None of the eight members seeking reelection faced serious opposition in their primaries, paving the way for them to secure their party nods. Three House GOP freshmen from Arkansas — Tim Griffin, Steve Womack, and Rick Crawford — won their races without opposition.

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Most of the action in Tuesday’s primaries took place in Republican races for the vacant seats of two retiring members and in a Democratic primary for the right to take on an Arkansas rookie member.

In the GOP contest for the northeastern Kentucky seat of retiring Republican Rep. Geoff Davis, Thomas Massie, a local Lewis County officeholder, prevailed over Alecia Webb-Edgington, a state representative.

Massie, a longtime supporter of Texas Rep. Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, aggressively cultivated the support of tea party activists in his campaign. He won the backing of Rand Paul and another conservative senator, Mike Lee of Utah. Massie also benefited from the backing of several well-funded outside groups, including the Club for Growth Liberty for All, a Texas-based super PAC that poured more than $500,000 into broadcast ads supporting him .

Webb-Edgington emerged as the establishment favorite, campaigning with the support of Davis and former Sen. Jim Bunning.

Massie is expected to easily win the seat, which strongly favors the GOP, in the general election. The 63-year-old Davis is departing the House after four terms.

In the GOP primary contest for the seat of retiring Democratic Rep. Mike Ross in Arkansas, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan prevailed. Tom Cotton notched a win over Beth Anne Rankin, a 2010 congressional candidate.

Cotton has become a conservative favorite, winning the support of a range of conservative groups, including the Club for Growth and Gun Owners of America, and of Arizona Sen. John McCain. Rankin, meanwhile, had the endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Cotton is widely viewed as the favorite to win the seat, to which Ross, a 50-year-old conservative Democrat, was elected in 2000. The southern Arkansas-based district became slightly more Republican-friendly in redistricting, giving the GOP an opening to win of all four of the state’s seats this year.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, local prosecutor Scott Ellington held a 49.5 percent to 38.2 percent lead over Clark Hall, a state representative who had raised five times as much money as Ellington.

Ellington will head to a June 12 runoff with Clark. To avoid a runoff, either candidate would have needed to reach a 50 percent threshold.

The results mark another blow to the beleaguered House Blue Dog Coalition, which has been seeking to increase its shrunken ranks by endorsing candidates, Hall among them.

Crawford is regarded as the favorite to hold the 1st District seat, which favors Republicans, in the general election.